Thursday, May 31, 2012

First, let me apologize to those of you who tried to read this story I did for Gannett/USAToday in an earlier blog post. No matter what I tried the post ran together, refusing to mark paragraphs, bullets, etc. Well, today is a new day, so I'm trying this again.....

Do you take your smartphone to bed because you claim to use
it as a nightlight? Or you say it’s the only alarm clock you have? Or you don’t
want to miss a critical text?

Here’s the problem with that thinking: Now that the phone is
only an arm’s reach away, it’s easy to check a few emails, perhaps sending off
a few responses so you have one less thing to do tomorrow.

You’ve just stepped onto a very slippery slope that will
make it difficult not to be connected 24/7. You’ve become one of those millions
of workers who fire off emails at midnight, or reach for the smartphone before
your first cup of coffee every morning.

You may claim that you have to work this way because your
job – or your employer – demands it. But Leslie A. Perlow finds that this drive
to stay connected all the time is really our own fault, and not something that
can be blamed on just an employer or a job.

Perlow is the Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at
Harvard Business School and decided to conduct some research into our need to
be “on” 24/7 and learn if such a habit could be broken.

Using professional services firm The Boston Consulting Group
(BCG) as a sort of guinea pig, she asked a team of high-powered,
always-connected consultants to see if they could disconnect more and actually
improve their performance and job happiness.

Perlow unveils the results in “Sleeping With Your
Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way Your Work,” (Harvard
Business Review, $27). She found that
the team not only found ways to turn off one night a week, they became closer
as a team, more satisfied with their jobs and produced better company results.
The company saw a clear improvement in recruitment, retention and engagement,
and the process spread throughout the organization, she says.

Perlow says she chose the consultants because they were an
extreme example of being connected, often putting in long work days and staying
connected even through vacations or other time off. But by committing as a team
to “predictable time off” for each person, they communicated more and supported
the efforts of disconnecting by everyone – and held one another accountable for
slip-ups (such sending emails during designated time-off periods).

“The problem when someone is connected 24/7 is that it sets
a norm for other members of the team,” she says. “They start to feel that to be
responsive, they have to respond late at night to emails. It’s not even urgent,
but it just matriculates all this bad behavior.”

In other words, the biggest enemy to work/life balance
is…us.

“Even doctors – who do life-saving work – have times when
they are off and times when they are on-call,” she says. “So, why don’t the
rest of us?”

The process of predictable time off will work only if all
the team members agree to it, she says. If a team wants to try it, she gives a
list of suggestions in her book:

Be honest. Tell other team
members your hopes and fears.

Don’t be stubborn. Maybe
the collective goal of the group – having an afternoon off every two weeks
– doesn’t meet your top priority. Still, don’t let that stop the process.
Look for goals everyone can meet that seem doable, but also are a stretch.
For the BCG team, for example, the job’s unpredictable nature of never
knowing there might be a night off was solved by giving everyone a certain
night off. Just having that predictability was valuable for everyone, she
says.

Meet regularly. It’s
critical that a team shares on a regular basis what is happening in their
lives. This helps build trust and a willingness to support one another. If
things get off track with a team member, don’t jump to conclusions or
judgments but try to understand what’s going on by asking questions.

Hold one another
accountable. While the agreement
may be entered into with the best of intentions by team members, it can be
easy to slip back into old patterns
when work becomes stressful. That’s when it’s the most important, however,
to remind one another to take a step back and realize that the work will
get done better if the balance is maintained. Perlow says that her
research has found that people with unpredictable work often try to gain
predictability by becoming more connected – but that only leads to more
unpredictability.

“The key to remember is that we’re
often our own worst enemy,” Perlow says. “You do have a choice in changing
things.”

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Lots of people tell me they'd like to give up the 24/7 work habit, but no matter what they try, it cannot be done.

The biggest problem, they tell me, is that their coworkers or their boss are hooked into the "always on" mode, so it means they must be also.

That's why I think this research from Leslie A. Perlow is so interesting. It shows that disconnecting from the 24/7 world can be done...but it takes a team effort.

Here's the column I did for Gannett/USAToday....
Do you take your smartphone to bed because you claim to use it as a nightlight, say it's the only alarm clock you have, or need to make sure you don't miss a critical text?

Here's the problem with that thinking: Now that the phone is only an arm's reach away, it's easy to check a few e-mails, perhaps sending off a few responses so you have one fewer thing to do tomorrow.

You've just stepped onto a very slippery slope that will make it difficult not to be connected 24/7. You've become one of those millions of workers who fire off e-mails at midnight or reach for the smartphone before your first cup of coffee every morning.

You may claim that you have to work this way because your job — or your employer — demands it.
But Leslie A. Perlow finds that this drive to stay connected all the time is really your own fault, not something that can be blamed on just an employer or a job.

Perlow is the Konosuke Matsushita professor of leadership at Harvard Business School and decided to conduct some research into workers' need to be "on" 24/7 and learn if such a habit can be broken.
Using professional services firm the Boston Consulting Group as a sort of guinea pig, she asked a team of high-powered, always-connected consultants to see if they could disconnect more and actually improve their performance and job happiness.

Perlow unveils the results in Sleeping With Your Smartphone: How to Break the 24/7 Habit and Change the Way Your Work, (Harvard Business Review, $27). She found that the team not only discovered ways to turn off one night a week, they also became closer as a team, more satisfied with their jobs and produced better results.

The company saw a clear improvement in recruitment, retention and engagement, and the process spread throughout the organization, she says.
Perlow chose the consultants because she says they were an extreme example of being connected, often putting in long work days and staying connected even through vacations or other time off.

But by committing as a team to predictable time off for each person, they communicated more, supported everyone's efforts to disconnect — and held one another accountable for slip-ups, such sending e-mails during designated time-off periods.

"The problem when someone is connected 24/7 is that it sets a norm for other members of the team," she says. "They start to feel that to be responsive, they have to respond late at night to e-mails. It's not even urgent, but it just matriculates all this bad behavior."

In other words, the biggest enemy to work-life balance is us.
"Even doctors, who do life-saving work, have times when they are off and times when they are on call," she says. "So, why don't the rest of us?"
The process of predictable time off will work only if all the team members agree to it, she says.

If a team wants to try it, she gives a list of suggestions in her book:

• Be honest. Tell other team members your hopes and fears.
• Stop the stubbornness. Maybe the collective goal of the group — having an afternoon off every two weeks — doesn't meet your top priority. Still, don't let that stop the process.
Look for goals everyone can meet but also are a stretch. Members of the Boston Consulting team never knew when they would get a night off. That uncertainty was solved by giving each person a regular evening when they weren't expected to be plugged in.
Just having that predictability was valuable for everyone, she says.

• Meet regularly. A team must share regularly what's happening in their lives. This helps build trust and a willingness to support one another.
If things get off track with a team member, don't rush to judgment but try to understand what's going on by asking questions.

• Hold one another accountable. Team members may enter into the agreement with the best of intentions, but it can be easy to slip back into old patterns when work becomes stressful.
However, that's when it's most important to remind one another to take a step back and realize that the work will be done better if the balance is maintained.

Perlow says her research has found that people with unpredictable work often try to gain predictability by becoming more connected, but that leads only to more unpredictability.
"The key to remember is that we're often our own worst enemy," Perlow says. "You do have a choice in changing things."

Thursday, May 24, 2012

I participate in several LinkedIn groups, and one question that caught my eye the other day was whether journalists should have a blog as a way to promote their personal brand.

I answered the question by pointing out that by developing a personal -- yet professional -- blog, I've been able to make some really cool connections and find wonderful sources.

Still, I've seen other "journalists" who make a real hash of their personal brand. They think being rude and nasty makes them more popular, and sharing their most intimate personal details on a blog is a good idea.

Not.

Read this column I did for Gannett/USAToday on the right way to go about establishing your personal brand and online presence to help your career, not sink it....

It sometimes can feel intimidating to be told you need to be more active online to promote yourself professionally.

You may feel uncomfortable with the thought of calling attention to yourself by blogging or jumping onto Twitter. Who cares, after all, about what you had for lunch?

But Michael Hyatt says it's not about ego or being the center of attention when you direct notice your way. It's more about finding ways to add value for others.

As the author of the popular blog, Intentional Leadershipand chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers, Hyatt says many authors have been turned down for publication because they didn't have a "platform." He says that got him to thinking about the lack of online presence and personal brand many people lack in the workplace today and how that can affect a person's ability to succeed overall.

Still, he acknowledges it can seem difficult to get attention with all the different communications channels. Many people try to write a blog and give up after a while because they fail to garner any attention.

Or, they don't know how to participate in online conversations and soon feel discouraged and quit using Facebook or Twitter when no one responds.

The result is that they've lost the chance to become a voice in their industry or make valuable connections that can help them find a new job or sell their product, he says.

• Give 30 minutes a day. You may believe you don't have time to chat on Twitter or Facebook, or comment on other blogs.

But just a half hour a day is enough to devote to this effort and can reap rewards over time with critical connections.

"Success today is not so much about what you know. It's about who you know," he says.

• Blog. Hyatt says his blog has more than 400,000 visitors a month, and while not everyone may be able to see even a fraction of that, he says a blog is the only way that you have complete control over your brand and your message.

That can be especially important if you are criticized online or in other forums, he says. Your blog can be a way to directly defend yourself or communicate your message.

• Participate in Twitter. Don't use this 140-character medium to post inane comments like what kind of coffee you're drinking, but rather as a way to engage others in a conversation or promote a product.

A note of caution: People will quickly unfollow you if you over-promote a product or post when you're angry or frustrated. As many celebrities have learned, posting emotional responses before thinking them through can garner an immediate backlash.

• Set up a Facebook fan page. These public pages enable you to keep your Facebook profile pages private and still have a way to interact with others on a professional level.

Hyatt says as least 5 percent of his blog traffic comes from Facebook.

• Write guest posts. Maybe you're not ready to launch a website and blog with your name attached, but you admire others' blogs.

Study the content and look for a way to contribute. Maybe you start out commenting on a blog post. In time, you can approach the blog author with an offer to submit a post. Then help promote the post through your networks and let it build your connections.

Any platform has to begin with taking personal responsibility for it, Hyatt says. No one knows your product better than you do or has more passion for it, whether it's a book or a blog.

It's your job to become chief marketing officer of your brand.

What are some ideas you would add to this idea of developing a personal brand?

Friday, May 18, 2012

I was at lunch with a high level finance executive the other day when his cell phone rang. He looked at the number displayed on the screen and his face turned beet red – I think I even saw a couple of purple splotches mixed in.

He let the call go to voicemail and his face color returned to normal after a few minutes.

Since I’ve written a book about how employees drive their bosses crazy, I couldn’t resist pursuing more questions. After a while he shared a story about an employee who constantly called or texted him, reporting some perceived misdeed in the office. Other employees continually griped about what they didn’t have, always giving the impression that whatever he did for them wasn’t enough.

The executive told me that he wondered if employees ever realized how much additional stress they piled on him. He said that he was never off the clock, often putting in 14-hour days, working weekends and receiving emails from his boss at 2 a.m. While he knew that stress was part of his job, he told me that he felt like a non-person in the eyes of his employees who seemed to think nothing of dumping even the most trivial problems on him.

Sometimes workers believe that whatever the boss is going through can never be as bad as what they’re experiencing, and often make no attempt to put themselves in the boss’s shoes. Managers often are blamed for everything from diminishing health benefits to broken snack machines. But they can get just as discouraged and feel just as unappreciated as any other employee – they’re just not supposed to show it.

However, learning to show a little appreciation for the job a boss does can pay off in a number of ways, not the least of which is a better relationship between you and your boss. While you don’t want to be a total suck-up, there’s nothing wrong with showing a little compassion for what the boss goes through every day and respecting him as a person.

me ways to score points with the boss and make both of you feel good include:

• Sending the boss a thank-you note. Make sure you send a note thanking the boss if you get...(read the rest here.)

Monday, May 14, 2012

As the economy starts to improve, more workers who have felt overworked and underpaid may be ready to jump ship.

But in looking for greener grass, where will these employees land?

A good bet is that workers will look not only for better paychecks, but for companies where they can grow their individual talents. After the job market of the past several years, workers are more aware than ever that they need to keep their skills up to date if they want to stay viable in the marketplace.

For companies, the improving economy means that they will be competing more and more for top talent, especially in industries such as high tech where employers may use big bonuses or other perks to attract and retain employees.

One company facing a talent shortage is Tribridge, a Tampa-based information technology services and business consulting firm that is one of the two largestMicrosoft Dynamics partners in the world.

Tribridge Chairman and Chief Executive Tony DiBenedetto says the industry is moving "at such a fast pace" that it's difficult to find employees with the necessary skills. The company has 12 locations in 35 states, serves about 3,500 customers and wants to add about 250 people to its current ranks of 450 employees this year.

But DiBenedetto says he knows Tribridge faces stiff competition for talent, especially for workers who have cloud-computing skills.

In the next five years, about 472,000 jobs are expected to be created in cloud-related companies worldwide.

Why such a demand? For one reason, popular social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter wouldn't be possible without the cloud, and nearly half a billion users will connect to the cloud from their smartphones and other mobile devices this year.

Further, mobile application downloads are estimated to reach 98 billion by the end of 2015.

But those demands mean some very specific cloud-computing skills are needed now and in the future — so the pressure is on to find the right employees for companies like Tribridge.

"We're growing so fast we're outpacing the industry. There's only so much talent out there" that can be lured from competitors, DiBenedetto says.

So instead of trying just to attract talent away from competitors, Tribridge launched Tribridge Academy 18 months ago to train new workers in necessary skills and keep the current work force on the cutting edge, DiBenedetto says.

Doug Blitzer, head of the academy, set up a virtual academy that offers 3,000 online courses to new and current workers. While a new employee may attend the academy every day for three months until up to speed, other workers with more experience participate in the two-year program partly during regular work hours.

All employees may attend the academy, no matter their job duties, he says.

"The program is very highly mentored," says Blitzer, director of talent strategy and development. "That's one of the things that makes it so successful."

Mentors include immediate supervisors and other team members, but employees also are encouraged to get outside mentors, DiBenedetto says.

"We believe because the market is constantly changing that getting an outside perspective is valuable," DiBenedetto says.

This commitment to career development and constant learning is critical not only for the company to survive in an internationally competitive marketplace but also to hang on to workers Tribridge has trained, he says. Right now, the company has a 95 percent retention rate.

Another key for Tribridge is seeking people who fit in with the company culture. Managers want those who welcome constant learning opportunities and express a natural curiosity, he says.

"Skills can be taught. You can't teach someone to be more entrepreneurial," he says. "We don't care if you're 20 or 50 years old. It may sound corny, but it really is about loving people and helping them develop to the best of their ability. If you have to have that kind of culture, then you become a place where people want to come to work."

Friday, May 11, 2012

Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg became a hero to many women when she publicly stated that she leaves the office at 5:30 p.m. every day to be with her children. Not only was this a call for the 40-hour week many of us have abandoned, it was a statement from a powerful, successful woman.
Unfortunately, according to a new study, not enough top-level women like Sandberg are speaking up – about anything.A Yale School of Management study finds that women executives don’t express their views as often as their male counterparts because they fear they will be seen as too outspoken.
“When men talk a lot and they have power, people want to reward them either by hiring them, voting for them, or just giving them more power and responsibility at work. But when women do it, they are seen as being too domineering, too presumptuous. Women perceive this, and that’s why they temper how much they talk,” says Victoria Brescoll, assistant professor of organizational behavior at the Yale.
Many men may scoff at this idea, citing their own significant others as being completely assured in stating their opinions on a regular basis. But Brescoll turned to the U.S. Senate when investigating the issue, since every word is recorded in that chamber.
Brescoll looked at the 2005 and 2007 sessions, analyzing gender, amount of time spoken (using C-Span and the Congressional Record) and then assigned a “power score” to each person. That score was given based on the lawmaker’s position, indirect influence, legislative activity and earmarks established by Knowlegis, a non-partisan firm.
While powerful male lawmakers talked more, the same could not be said for powerful female lawmakers, Brescoll found.
Interestingly, the powerful women didn’t even talk more than (read more here)

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

I've interviewed many leaders over the years, and the one thing that comes up consistently is that great managers don't have to use a bunch of fancy voodoo to motivate or inspire workers. They don't have to offer cool perks like parachuting off the office building during lunch hours to get the most from employees.

It just comes down to being a genuine person who really listens to workers and shows some humility. But based on the number of Wall Street types who have been doing the perp walk over the last several years, this may be a lesson worth revisiting as I did in this column for Gannett/USAToday....

If you could eavesdrop on a conversation among chief executives discussing their business concerns, what do you think you would hear?

Not only is he a chief executive, but his company,Korn/Ferry International, is the world's largest executive recruiting firm.

"The most common theme I hear from CEOs is that it's less about the product made or the technology used, and that it's much more about the people," he says. "CEOs are asking more out of people with less people to do the work. So, what I found that it's much less about the strategy and setting forth a purpose and much more about empowering, motivating and inspiring people."

CEOs are focused on inspiring workers to be more innovative to be able to compete globally, Burnison says. They understand that no employee will stay for 20 years in one job and is more likely to stay just a few years.

Yet CEOs say if they can motivate workers to stay another two or three years with an employer, that can be critical to business success.

Part of getting top talent to stick around depends on leadership. Because many companies lost potential leaders during the economic downturn, the demand is on for managers who can inspire and motivate workers, Burnison says.

If you're interested in being one of those future leaders, what are some of the management skills you need?

"The No. 1 predictor of success is learning agility. In other words, knowing what to do when you don't know what to do," he says, adding that those seeking leadership positions also should show humility and authenticity.

Some young workers haven't learned the importance of face-to-face communications, a hallmark of successful managers, Burnison says. He believes they and people in other generations spend too much time staring at their palms as they use smartphones or other gadgets.

"Ultimately, leadership is about making others believe," he says. "They (workers) have to be able to look into your eyes and see your soul."

• Make it count. "I was counseled a long time ago that as a leader, you need to make the other person feel better than before with every interaction," he says.

"That's actually taxing and very difficult," Burnison says. "But when you're a leader, you can't have a bad day. What you project, others feel."

• Manage the first 3 minutes. More than 50 percent of communication is visual, which is why it's key that you take note of your tone of voice, facial expression and body language when meeting someone.

Leaders always must be aware of what they're projecting to others, such as confidence or optimism.

• Be fully present. "Don't be looking at your BlackBerry.

"Don't read something. You have to be in the moment," he says. "Fully engage the other person."

• Have an "outside-in" perspective. "Find out what others are thinking," Burnison says.

"You have to be able to listen, learn and lead," he says. "Ask questions."

Finally, as a leader looking to hire new talent, Burnison says he always will "choose hunger over pedigree any day."

"Why? Because while pedigree is important, performance is the great equalizer," he says. "I know that person who is hungry will work harder, will try harder and will wake up without the alarm clock. They're going to want it, taste it, live it and breathe it."

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Sometimes there is nothing more irritating than those trite phrases like “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” When you’re having a tough time in life, your first inclination may be to tell those full of such homespun logic to go suck a lemon.

Those people don’t have to deal with an ogre boss or a long commute, you think, so they don’t know that it’s difficult to just be so darn positive all the time.

But what if there was a way to flip the switch in your life? To start seeing negative aspects of your work in a way that helped you be happier and less eaten up by guilt or stress or unhappiness?

She says that as children, we respond to the caregivers in our lives. For example, that means if you had someone in your life that was responsive to your needs – such as knowing you needed a bit more comfort when life handed you lemons – then you may feel more comfortable with yourself and your feelings.

“Negativity often comes when you aren’t honored for being an authentic person,” she says. “If people in your life have encouraged you to be who you are, then you’re honored for being an authentic person. But if you can’t be honest and you’re constantly being a fake version of yourself, then that’s when you get frustrated and negative.”

Dealing with nasty moods

Because of the difficult job market, many employees feel stuck in jobs that further sour their mood. Stein says in those cases, it can be helpful to lower your expectations. In other words, don’t expect so much from a boss or colleagues and then you’re not attaching yourself to an outcome that disappoints you and is “like a letdown every day,” she says.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

I was recently with family who had several young children. It was fascinating to watch how curious they were about everything. It seems every sentence started with "why" or "how."

Even though it drove their parents a bit nutty, I really wish we could hang on to more of our curiosity and a need to learn and understand.

Here's a story I did for Gannett/USAToday on why you may want to tap into that inner 5-year-old at work....

If you think always having the right answer is the key to career success, you may be wrong.

According to Andrew Sobel, having the right questions — not just the right answers — is what really can set you apart. Making the right queries can get you a new job, impress your chief executive or help you land a new client.

But the real power of questions comes from listening to the answer, he says. By doing so, you make the other person feel valued.

Good questions can help distinguish you from other job seekers or even help you get out of hot water with the boss, he says.

He suggests that questions help forge a connection with someone else so you become more memorable and also help you navigate difficult conversations or resolve problems.

Questions can help in numerous situations, such as:

• A job interview. "Recruiters I've talked to tell me most people don't ask questions in an interview or ask terrible ones such as 'What do you do?' or 'How much vacation do I get?' " Sobel says.

Instead, build credibility by phrasing questions around your own abilities: "When I think back to my experience managing a sales force, I can think of three areas that were challenging. What are the challenging issues for you?"

He also suggests asking questions that tap into someone's passion, such as, "What do you love most about working here?"

• Face-to-face with the CEO. Maybe you're on a long elevator ride or get a chance to chit-chat at a company gathering, but take the opportunity to ask the head honcho questions that will engage him or her.

Sobel says CEOs most hate the question "So, what keeps you up at night?" He suggests asking "I know we've got a lot of new initiatives going on that sound great to me. What are you most excited about?"

He also says that many top bosses love being asked, "So how did you get your start?" He suggests steering away from queries about the company stock price or store expansion, which can be boring topics for chief executives.

• Helping your career. If the boss cares about something, then so should you.

Only by tapping into a boss's concerns or goals can you align your actions to help that person be successful, which also will make you successful. Sobel suggests asking, "I'm curious about what expectations our leaders have asked of you this year, and how can I better support you in that?"

• When you mess up. Maybe a presentation starts badly or you say something awkward and the conversation becomes uncomfortable.

Sobel suggests saying, "I've gotten off on the wrong foot, and I'm really sorry. Do you mind if I begin again?" Another way to get back on track: "Can I ask how you have been thinking about this?" or "Can you share your view of the situation?"

Many people just starting talking faster and faster when they know they're off track when it's better to take a deep breath and stop talking.

"Most people want you to win, and it can be very powerful to just reset the conversation by starting over," he says.

• Networking. Lots of people hate events where they have to strike up a conversation with strangers or people they don't know well.

Sobel says it's easier if you begin by asking low-risk, innocuous questions: "How long have you worked here?" or "Where did you grow up?"

The point is to make people feel like you're interested in a connection through your questions and careful listening, he says.